Irene Kitchings/Wilson/Armstrong/Higginbotham

[ghost of miles]

For years I've been a fan of the quite slim output of songs by Irene Kitchings, who married Teddy Wilson in the 1930s (the marriage was over by the end of the decade). She is the co-writer, along with Arthur Herzog Jr., of several songs that Billie Holiday recorded: "Some Other Spring," "I'm Pulling Through," "Ghost of Yesterday," and "What Is This Going to Get Us." Here's my question: is Irene Kitchings the same as Irene Higginbotham, who co-wrote "Good Morning Heartache," "No Good Man," and who wrote "This Will Make You Laugh" (very nice song recorded by both Nat King Cole and Carmen McRae)? Steven Lasker identifies Higginbotham as the former Mrs. Wilson in his 1991 notes to THE COMP. BILLIE HOLIDAY ON DECCA, and Donald Clarke makes the same connection in his 1995 bio WISHING ON THE MOON (best Billie bio around IMO). Yet Linda Dahl, in her 1984 book STORMY WEATHER, talks about Kitchings (esp. re: her early career as the leader of a jazz trio in Chicago) and never refers to the Higginbotham incarnation. I'm currently working on a show about women songwriters for Night Lights and want to devote considerable attention to Kitchings... anybody else have any clues?

BTW, I think Michael Brooks goofs in his liner notes for QUINTESSENTIAL B. HOLIDAY V. 7 (replicated in the complete Columbia box) when he says that Kitchings wrote the lyrics for "Some Other Spring" and that Herzog Jr. wrote the music--Clarke quotes Kitchings herself as saying that Billie took the music Kitchings wrote to Herzog, who added the lyrics.

[marcello]

by Eugene Chadbourne

While her closest connection in the popular music of the '30s and '40s was the great jazz singer Billie Holiday, prolific songwriter Irene Higginbotham was also related by blood and marriage to several famous musicians from this genre. The songwriter was the niece of classic jazz trombonist J.C. Higginbotham. She was also the ex-wife of Teddy Wilson

[ghost of miles]

by Eugene Chadbourne

While her closest connection in the popular music of the '30s and '40s was the great jazz singer Billie Holiday, prolific songwriter Irene Higginbotham was also related by blood and marriage to several famous musicians from this genre. The songwriter was the niece of classic jazz trombonist J.C. Higginbotham. She was also the ex-wife of Teddy Wilson

Man, thanks much, Marcello--I had never come across a picture of Irene Kitchings. Well, I'm becoming more & more convinced that Irene H. and Irene K/W are one and the same... wonder where Linda Dahl got the "Armstrong" name? Also, I hadn't thought of Irene H. as a "prolific" songwriter, but I'll have to dig a bit more... she's probably going to take up half of the program at this point.

[ghost of miles]

OK--Linda Dahl's lengthy article on women songwriters identifies them as two different women:

Irene Higginbotham, a concert pianist, co-wrote "Good Morning Heartache" and "Ghost of Yesterday," while also in the 1940s, another pianist named Irene Armstrong Wilson Kitchings (she was married for a time to pianist Teddy Wilson) wrote "I'm Pulling Through" and "Some Other Spring."

However, this para contains an inaccuracy: it was Kitchings, not Higginbotham, who co-wrote "Ghost of Yesterday"--unless they are indeed the same person.

Or did Teddy marry two songwriters named Irene?

This thread begs for Chris A.'s intervention in at least a couple of ways!

[Christiern]

I knew Irene Higginbotham fairly well--was introduced to her by J.C. This was in the 1960s and she had a government office job. She wrote tons of songs, always trying to come up with another "Good Morning Heartache." Somewhere, in my jumbled closet, there are a couple of audio cassettes with songs written by her, but none that I found interesting--at least not back then, when she gave me the tapes.

She was always pleasant company--as was Higgy.

[ghost of miles]

I knew Irene Higginbotham fairly well--was introduced to her by J.C. This was in the 1960s and she had a government office job. She wrote tons of songs, always trying to come up with another "Good Morning Heartache." Somewhere, in my jumbled closet, there are a couple of audio cassettes with songs written by her, but none that I found interesting--at least not back then, when she gave me the tapes.

She was always pleasant company--as was Higgy.

Chris, thanks! So she was definitely NOT the former Mrs. Wilson aka Irene Kitchings? Was she J.C.'s sister or niece? Re: your closet, I'm beginning to think you should lease it to Mosaic!

[ghost of miles]

So far I've seen info that Irene H. was J.C.'s niece and that she was his sister. This online reviewer of a swing compilation has another take:

7. Some Other Spring — This majestic song was composed by Irene Kitchings, who had good taste in musicians — she married both Teddy Wilson and J C Higginbotham.

Chris, I await your historical verdict. What a hash! If they are indeed two different people, then a number of writers on Billie Holiday are incorrect in their references. Even the folks on Yahoo Songbirds haven't been able to sort this one out yet...

[Christiern]

She was Higgy's niece.

I'll keep checking. Here's something from a John S. Wilson piece in the NYT, July 2, 1982.

Edited February 19, 2006 by Christiern

[ghost of miles]

Response from Yahoo Songbirds this a.m. to my queries and postings there:

I've always wondered about whether the two Irenes were actually one,

and the appearance of this thread spurred me finally to do something

practical about it, i.e. go to the ASCAP site. Alas, only more

frustration. I. Higginotham is there all right, credited with Good

Morning Heartache, This Will Make You Laugh, Are You Living Old Man

No Good Man, and 39 songs I've never heard of. No sign however of

any of the Kitchings songs, nor could I locate them by title. So I

went to BMI and typed in Some Other Spring, which is listed there

but credited to Arthur Herzog and no-one else. I tried again with

Ghost of Yesterday, and here Herzog indeed shares credit with I.

Kitchings who however is listed as NA: No Affiliation. Same with I'm

Pulling Through and with a song I don't remember hearing of before

called What Is This Going to Get Us, and which for some reason is

listed twice. Nothing else under Kitchings at all. So, either

they're two different people (which seems to me likelier, despite

the coincidence of them both being associated with Billie) or when

Higginbotham became Kitchings she left ASCAP but didn't go anywhere

else.

For what it's worth, the Kitchings songs (granting her the

authorship BMI denies her for Some Other Spring) strike me as of

finer quality than the Higginbotham ones.

Robert

[ghost of miles]

Just checked Stuart Nicholson's Billie bio, and he, too, like Clarke, IDs Irene Higginbotham as Kitchings/Wilson. Chris, did Irene H. ever mention having been married to Teddy Wilson?

[ghost of miles]

I knew Irene Higginbotham fairly well--was introduced to her by J.C. This was in the 1960s and she had a government office job. She wrote tons of songs, always trying to come up with another "Good Morning Heartache." Somewhere, in my jumbled closet, there are a couple of audio cassettes with songs written by her, but none that I found interesting--at least not back then, when she gave me the tapes.

She was always pleasant company--as was Higgy.

Chris, I think I'm closer to solving this, partly on the basis of your post here. Was Irene H. married when you knew her? Was this in New York City?

Donald Clarke, in WISHING ON THE MOON, asserts that the "Irene" who wrote "Good Morning Heartache" is the same Irene who wrote "Some Other Spring" and "I'm Pulling Through." But... he devotes several pages to Irene Wilson/Kitchings earlier in the book, and states that Irene Kitchings moved back to Cleveland (her birthplace), met an Ohio state Youth Commissioner named Elden Kitchings, and married him in 1946. They were together for the rest of their lives; Clarke doesn't say so, but the implication seems to be that they stayed in Ohio.

If the Irene H. you knew was unmarried, or married to somebody else (not Elden Kitchings)... well, I think it's clearer and clearer that they are two different people, and that the similar first names have led to numerous wrong statements about authorship of "Good Morning Heartache" and "No Good Man" (the other Irene H. song recorded by Billie).

[ghost of miles]

Chris, sent you an e-mail regarding Irene H. I think the mystery is just about solved, thanks to a number of people.

[ghost of miles]

For anybody interested in this, "Ghosts of Yesterday: Billie Holiday and the Two Irenes" will air on Night Lights Saturday, March 4. Turned out to be a bit of a weird program...

[Christiern]

I just mentioned the case of the two Irenes to Ira Gitler, who also knew Irene Higginbotham. He concurs--they were two women, not one.

[medjuck]

So would some one please do a summing up and tell us who wrote what. Pretty please!!

[marcello]

Irene Higginbotham wrote "Good Morning Heartache". She was J.C.'s niece

Irene Kitchings wrote "Some Other Spring". She was married to Teddy Wilson.

[ghost of miles]

So would some one please do a summing up and tell us who wrote what. Pretty please!!

Kitchings-Herzog:

Some Other Spring

Ghost of Yesterday

What Is This Going to Get Us

I'm Pulling Through

(all rec. by B. Holiday for Columbia 1939-40)

Higginbotham:

This Will Make You Laugh (rec. by Nat King Cole and Carmen McRae)

Good Morning, Heartache (co-writer; rec. by Billie for Decca)

No Good Man (co-writer; rec. by Billie for Decca)

Are You Livin' Old Man (co-writer; rec. by Stan Kenton w/Anita O'Day)

Herzog-Holiday:

Don't Explain (rec. by Billie for Decca)

God Bless the Child (rec. by Billie for Columbia and Decca)

All of these will be featured in the program. I've left out the later Verve renditions of some of the above songs, although they were my gateway into Holiday.

[chromatic]

I knew Irene Higginbotham fairly well--was introduced to her by J.C. This was in the 1960s and she had a government office job. She wrote tons of songs, always trying to come up with another "Good Morning Heartache." Somewhere, in my jumbled closet, there are a couple of audio cassettes with songs written by her, but none that I found interesting--at least not back then, when she gave me the tapes.

She was always pleasant company--as was Higgy.

I'm working on a feature about Irene Higginbotham. As many of you know David Brent Johnson claims to have solved the riddle of the two Irenes on radio show “Night Lights.” It is a convincing argument.

If they are two separate songwriters, I'm trying to find out what became of Higginbotham. Is she the one who used the pseudonym Glenn Gibson?

The picture with the beautiful Irene in a hat, the one that is circulated on the 'net, is that Higginbotham or Kitchings?

Most history books say she was born in Worcester, MA in 1918. She died in 1988. Does any know where?

[ghost of miles]

Chromatic, I don't know the answer to that question, but check out this very recent post at the New England Jazz History database by Chet Williamson. The second post in the reply field is from a relative of Higginbotham's and lists some surviving family members... maybe they would know, if you could run down their contact info? A colleague of mine here at the station ran across this post last week because of its reference to the Night Lights program... evidently Williamson is going to post a second entry; he might know as well where Higginbotham died.

One of the best sources of info on Kitchings, btw--if you haven't come across it already--is in Sally Placksin's American Women in Jazz.

[ghost of miles]

Followup post at the New England Jazz History database which makes more mention of the Night Lights show and also Organissimo (including that man of mystery "Christiern" ... btw, I spotted him browsing the board yesterday).

[Michael Weiss]

Some Other Spring

[ghost of miles]

Heard Michael play that not long ago at Bear's Place, and it's a great arrangement!

[ghost of miles]

I knew Irene Higginbotham fairly well--was introduced to her by J.C. This was in the 1960s and she had a government office job. She wrote tons of songs, always trying to come up with another "Good Morning Heartache." Somewhere, in my jumbled closet, there are a couple of audio cassettes with songs written by her, but none that I found interesting--at least not back then, when she gave me the tapes.

She was always pleasant company--as was Higgy.

I'm working on a feature about Irene Higginbotham. As many of you know David Brent Johnson claims to have solved the riddle of the two Irenes on radio show “Night Lights.” It is a convincing argument.

If they are two separate songwriters, I'm trying to find out what became of Higginbotham. Is she the one who used the pseudonym Glenn Gibson?

The picture with the beautiful Irene in a hat, the one that is circulated on the 'net, is that Higginbotham or Kitchings?

Most history books say she was born in Worcester, MA in 1918. She died in 1988. Does any know where?

The beautiful Irene in a hat is Kitchings. That's cropped out of a larger picture that shows her sitting with Billie Holiday, Kenny Clarke, and Dorothy Donegan at Cafe Society in 1944 (full picture in Robert O'Meally's LADY DAY book).

I've been corresponding with a woman here in Indiana--Irene K. was her "aunt" (in the close-friend-of-the-family sense). According to this woman's mother, Irene K. always said she was from Muncie, IN. News to me, and I'm hoping to verify.

Edited July 2, 2007 by ghost of miles